Studien zur Geschichte und !(ultur Charity and Giving des islamischen Orients in Monotheistic Religions Beihefte zur Zeitschrift "Der Islam" Herausgegeben von Edited by Lawrence I. Conrad Miriam Frenkel and Yaacov Lev Neue Folge Band 22 Walter de Gruyter . Berlin· New York Walter de Gruyter . Berlin· New York In Memoriam Zeev Rubin (1942-2009) @ Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability. ISBN 978-3-11-020946-4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Charity and giving in monotheistic religion I [edited by] Miriam Frenkel and Yaacov Lev. p. cm. - (Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des islamischen Ori­ ents, ISSN 1862-1295 ; Bd. 22) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-3-11-020946-4 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Genorosity. 2. Genorosity - Religious aspects. 3. Monotheism. 4. Charity. 1. Frenkel, Miriam. II. Lev, Yaacov. B]1533.G4G46 2009 205' .677-dcn 2009004216 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at htrp:lldnb.d-nb.de. © Copyright 2009 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin. All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or me­ chanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in Germany Cover design: Christopher Schneider, Laufen Charity and Piety for the Transformation of the Cities The New Direction in Taxation and Waqf Policy in Mid-Twelfth-Century Syria and Northern Mesopotamia STEFAN HEIDEMANN 1. IntroductionI This strange system by which the dead provide for rhe living is typical for a sociery which is becoming static and ceases to be competitive and enterpris- mg.. 2 This is how Shlomo Dov Goitein, the author ofA Mediterranean Society, perceived the impact of the endowment (waqf) on Muslim societies dur­ ing the period of Changes in the Middle East (950-1150).3 Research ef­ forts over the past 35 years have proved the opposite of Goitein's claim. A thorough examination of the wealth of the Ottoman archives has led to this re-assessment. For Goitein's period, however, deeds of waqfendow­ ments are almost nonexistent. The impact of the institution of the This contribution would not have been possible without the splendid academic environment created by the Institute for Advanced Studies at Hebrew Universiry in Jerusalem. Between September 2006 and February 2007 I had the honour to join the Institute as a fellow of the research group 'Chariry and Piery from Late Antiquiry to the Middle Ages' organized by Miriam Frenkel and Yaacov Lev. I owe much to numerous discussions with all members of this group. At the same time this work is part of a larger research project 'The New Economic Dy­ namics in the Zangid and Ayyubid Period' supported by the German Research Foundations (DFG) since 2004. A German version of this study appears in Stif tungen im Islam. Rechtsentwicklung undsoziale Bedeutung vom 7 bis zum 21. Jahr­ hundert, (eds) Astrid Meier and Johannes Pahlitzsch, (Berlin, forthcoming). I would especially like to express my gratitude to Emilie Norris for various com­ ments and careful reading and improving the English draft. 2 Sh. D. Goitein: "Changes in the Middle East (950-1150) as Illustrated by the Documents of the Geniza", Islamic Civilisation 950-1150, Papers on Islamic History III, (ed) D. S. Richards, (Oxford, 1973), 17-32. 3 See fn. 2. 154 Stefan Heidemann Chatity and Piety for the Transformation ofthe Cities 155 th waqfduring the period of urban transformation in the 6th/12 century, programs9 are all comparatively well-known, less familiar are the econom­ therefore, is far less known.4 ic structures behind this blossoming. One could describe the 6th/12th century in Syria and northern Meso­ Mter the Seljuqs had laid the military, administrative, and fiscal foun­ potamia as anything but static. It was a time of renewal and of the final dations, the Zangids conducted far-reaching economic and fiscal reforms Islamization of the cityscapes. A vast building program finally trans­ that allowed for that urban transformation. At the same time the Zangids formed the late Roman/early Islamic city of the sixth to the tenth centu­ adjusted many of the existing political and economic institutions to the ries-followed by almost two centuries ofdecline-to the prosperous me­ regulations and stipulations of the revealed law, the shari'a. The Zangid's dieval5 city of the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries which can be still seen care for Islam, its law and its jihad was vital for their legitimization of in the old towns ofmodern cities in the Middle East. The majority of the power; it distinguished their rule from that of other rival Seljuq princi­ urban populations had become Muslim by now,6 and the appearance of palities in the eyes of their contemporaries, and helped them to gain le­ the cities was dominated by Islamic buildings and institutions.? While the gitimacyas foreign Turkish rulers over the indigenous, mostly Arab and urban decline prior to the Seljuq conquest, the beginning of the urban, Aramaic population. political, and economic renaissances, and the extensive Zangid building Which legal and political instruments for this economic growth were at the disposal of the Zangids? This contribution will study the phenom­ 4 M. Hoexter: "Waqf Studies in the Twentieth Century", jESHO, 41 (1998), enon of the waqfsystem as one important element that led to the final m 474-495. Studies on the waqf in the 6'h112 century are rare, see Y. Frenkel: Islamization of the cities and to their economic revival. Related elements "Political and Social Aspects of Islamic Religious Endowments (awqa/J: Saladin include taxation, iqta' and the monetary system. IO In the middle of the in Cairo (1169-1173) and Jerusalem (1187-1193)", BSOAS, 62 (1999), 1-20, th th and J. Pahlitzsch: "The Transformation of Latin Religious Institutions into Is­ 6 /12 century a new waqf-policy was inaugurated by a ruler from the lamic Endowments by Saladin in Jerusalem", Governing the Holy City. The Inter­ Seljuq tradition, Nur al-Din Mahmud ibn Zangi (r. 541-569/1146­ action of Social Groups in Medieval jerusalem, (eds) J. Pahlitzsch and 1. Korn, 1174). The intention ofhis waqfpolicy went far beyond the mere financ­ (Wiesbaden, 2004), 47-69. ing of single institutions. waqfpolicy meant the systematic use of a legal 5 The term 'Middle Ages' is here applied to the second flowering of Islamic civi­ ll lization from the Seljuqs to the early Ottomans, in contrast to the early Islamic instrument of private law for general public duties and purposes which 12 period and the period of the early modern Islamic empires, the Ottomans, the fell-in the broad sense-under the responsibility of the state. This Safawids and the Mughals. 6 According to estimates, the majority of the population in the Middle East be­ came Muslim between the end of the ninth and the twelfth centuries, with re­ ran von der Zeit der beduinischen Vorherrschaft bis zu den Seldschuken, Islamic gional differences. R. W Bulliet attempts a statistical analysis based on collections HistOlY and Civilization. Studies and Texts, 40, (Leiden, 2002). of biographies; R. W Bulliet: Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period. An Essay 9 Y. A. al-Tabba: The Architectural Patronage ofNul' ai-Din (lJ46-1I74), PhD in Quantitative History (Cambridge, London, 1979). M. G. Morony studies in­ dissertation, (New York, 1982). dividual reports on conversions; M. G. Morony: "The Age of Conversions. A 10 For these other elements see S. Heidemann: "Arab Nomads and Seljuq Military", Re-Assessment", Conversion and Continuity. Indigenous Christian Communities Shifts and Drifts in Nomad-Sedentary Relations, Nomaden und Sesshafre 2, (eds) in Islamic Lands, Eighth to Eighteenth Centuries, Papers in Medieval Studies 9, S. Leder and B. Streck, (Wiesbaden, 2005), 289-305; S. Heidemann: "financ­ (eds) M. Gervers and R. J. Bikhazi, (Toronto, 1990), 135-150. N. Levtzion ing the Tribute to the Kingdom of Jerusalem: An Urban Tax in Damascus. In: studies conversion in Syria and Palestine within the context of historical develop­ BSOAS70 (2007),117-142; and S. Heidemann: "Economic Growth and Cur­ ments in the region; Levtzion, N. "Conversion to Islam in Syria and Palestine rency in Ayyubid Palestine", Ayyubid Jerusalem: The Holy City in Context, (ed) and the Survival of Christian Communities", Conversion and Continuity. Indige­ R. Hillenbrand, (London, 2009). nous Christian Communities in Islamic Lands, Eighth to Eighteenth Centuries, Pa­ 11 The term 'public duties' does not exist as such in medieval Arabic terminology. It pers in Medieval Studies, 9, (eds) M. Gervers and R. J. Bikhazi, (Toronto, 1990), is used here in a hermeneutical sense: It means duties which are today usually 289-311. assigned to the state, and which the early Islamic state like the late Roman per­ 7 E. Wirth: Die Orientalische Stadt im islamischen Vorderasien und Nordafrika, formed. The term 'masalih al-muslimin' (welfare of the Muslims) might be the (Maim, 2000). closest Arabic rendering. 8 S. Heidemann: Die Renaissance del' Stiidte in NOI-dsyrien und Nordmesopotamien. 12 It is possible to use the term 'economic policy' for the Zangids: The policy mak­ Stadtische Entwicklung und wirtschaftliche Bedingungen in al-Raqqa und Har- ers were aware of the main economic impacts of their decisions and actions. They 156 Stefan Heidemann Charity and Piety for the Transformation of the Cities 157 function of the waqfis familiar to scholars of the Mamluk and Ottoman Exploration of the role of the waqfduring this period of urban ren­ periods, but it is not yet established when and why this conscious policy aissance and transformation contributes to the theory of economic began in the Seljuq and Zangid period.